The Study On Chinese Legends Of The Other-World With Relative Time

There is one type of Chinese legends of the other-world that conveys especially a belief that if one stays in heaven for one day, one year may pass in the world. In the paper, these legends are named "legends of the other-world with relative time". Previews studies, classifying these narratives as folktales, were dedicated generally to the typologies of the texts. In view of the intellectual definitions and distinctive features of legend and folktale, it is more likely that this type of folk narrations should be classified as legend rather than folktale. The belief and ideas of time and space are expressed in the legends.The passages and hero's visions are two critical parts of the legends, because actually they correspond respectively to the basic features of legends: the other-world and the relative time. In regard to the space, via the vertical passages or the horizontal ones, people manage to arrive in the other-world from the world of mortals. The images of passages reflect the ideas about levels of the universe as well as people's self-centeredness. In regard to the time, the movements of time, which are naturally invisible, have to be represented by the spatial variations including essentially shifting light, growing plants, animal activities and changing appearances. According to the cultural time theory, time is one of the most significant facts that construct the world model. Thereby the existence of the other-world is proved convincingly by the varying time modes of two worlds in legends. In addition, there are large quantities of legends telling immortals are playing chess in the other-world. To some extent, it is enlightening to interpret these legends so as to explain the descriptions of relative time and space. Traditional ideas of Big Dipper in day-in year, the immortality faith and Daoism are relevant to the legends at different levels.